Running them, I mean.

STW seems to know everything so why not ask here? If you own a corner shop, can you make a living? Or are you going to be crushed by Sainsbos at every turn ?

Round here (north hants) they all seem to be one stops, which are owned by tesco. The only truly independent in 5 miles is a great little shop that does all the usual stuff but also specialises in all the Indian and Pakistani foods that you can’t get anywhere else. They seem to do well but also never seem to shut.

What sort of corners would you sell? I believe that there’s a niche for acute ones but obtuse could be tricky.

The majority I see seem to be small, family run business which make you tax efficient because you probably pay your family bugger all to run it.

I reckon if you live in the right area and have a captive market then there maybe some money in it. If not, then probably not any more than just plonking the capital into a FTSE tracker and waiting 10-20 years on the return.

Morrisons have recently sold all their small shops off at a loss, asda dont have any, best to join a spar or other type of joint buying enterprise.

I get the impression that you can make an ‘O.K’ living out of it, but you either need a huge family prepared to help for free/next to nothing or you end up working insane hours.

It’s certainy far from ‘easy’ money.

Lottery machine is he dealbreaker.

Lottery machine is he dealbreaker

if any lottery isnt operating locally in another premesis, and that you have a certain turnover and a set time for opening and closing usually long hours.

I think any kind of independent retail these days is just killed by property prices. I suspect most still surviving have owned the properties since the 80’s and they are still susceptible to a son of tecsco landing near by.

Worked in various types of retail long ago, including a year of running a small local shop. Long hours for me, significant financial investment by the owner, taxation, H&S rules for prep and display of fresh goods, staff pay and conditions, council alcohol licensing, newspaper and lottery rights etc made the whole thing more bother than it was worth. Unless you are a genuine family business with a USP, either by way of prime location or niche goods, it will be a struggle.

I work for the man now.

There was one near my uni halls (Monte) which evidently made a fair amount from their astonishingly diverse and large range of gentertainment. I doubt there has ever been such a large amount of rhythm pamphlets in one place. Except under binners mattress.

One near us does well. He owns the shop and the flats above. Really quiet residential area with a relatively elderly population and a local high school close by helps.

The two in the West Sussex village I grew up in used to do very well. One included a Post Office, the owner of which had a bloomin’ great big house and a daughter that didn’t want for anything.

Another mate’s dad owned a very successful bakery in the same village. Adding a commercial delivery element took it to a new level; big house, Range Rover, regular holidays in the US and all the biggest and best toys (and loads more spending money than any of us when on school trips).

Not sure if anything close to that can be achieved today.

They all seem to be closing one by one round our way and replaced by Sainsburys Locals etc.

I don’t know, we’ve got a Bookers card in work, I sometimes wander around looking at huge boxes of sweets and stuff and you don’t need to be on Dragons Den to work out the margins they work with aren’t fantastic – if someone walks in and buys a paper, a lotto ticket and a pack of Rolos I doubt they make a quid out of it.

I’ve never seen one survive 6 months after a mini Tescos or Sainsbury’s opens up the road.

Maybe if you owned all the shops in one town or brewed your own beer or made your own fags or something… The supermarkets aren’t interested in 50 sq metres of space. It’s the fact there is a shop every 500 metres selling the same thing at the same price is what creates the competition.

There used to be one next to my old shop – Terry gave it up and is now a technical studies assistant and is a lot happier.

Very, very difficult to compete with 24/7 Tescos just down the road – he was making £2 profit on a £60 bottle of whisky. Very long hours, annoying or abusive customers, he didn’t enjoy it at all.

dont forget they are a cash business.

our local corner shop charges 50p per credit/debit card transaction to persuade people to pay via cash……

My local newsagent does well. He took it over a few years back, has modernised the inside, offers a greater range of products.
He did get robbed at knifepoint a while back though.

My ex’s folks ran one for 20 years, they worked their asses off and made a sort of adequate income… They were actually directly opposite a decent sized supermarket for most of that, and it didn’t seem to trouble them massively. They had every little revenue stream- lottery, billpay, they’d have been all over myhermes etc. Though as her dad said “The arse’s fallen out of the **** mag trade these days”.

The payday for them was selling out to retire, they sold it as a going concern with name etc to another shop who figured the “norn irish immigrant” riff that came with it was more appealing to racists than “yes, pakistani descent but was bloody born here”… anyway, they made several years worth of profits in a day.

If their experience is typical, I bloody wouldn’t.

Mate owned one for a few years, it was a little general shop on an estate.
It had a house attached and he carried on working. So he saved his wages and the shop paid their living expences, a new Hilux and for several expensive holidays. When they sold it he said what he made and it was more than any of us woudl have guessed.
He sold it as his missus was meant to run it but his daughter did[she would have been 14 when they moved in] and he didn’t want his daughter working in a little shop.
The bad bit’s:
His daughter was robbed, he got her a big dog, the place didn’t get robbed or
broken into after that.
The girls who worked liked putting his dosh in their pockets/bags, even after he put CCTV in!

One near us was making a decent profit. Little empire of small rental properties made off the profits from the shop, the only paper shop/corner shop on that side of the (large) estate.

Family run business and so on.

Then daddy got sent down for tax evasion/fraud.

Corner shop near me was always busy, a good 300m to nearest tesco express.

However Omar’s sideline was getting families into the UK. I understand thathe made excellent money in this sideline, and a small shop was the ideal venture to ensure it was all above board

A lot of the corner shop customers seem to go to the Spar type shops at petrol stations now. People seem to want to drive absolutely everywhere, and often can’t get parked within 20 yards of traditional corner shops so drive to somewhere where they can.

Corner shop nearest us always does well (Triangle – Dorking): think its a combination of great location (gets passing trade off the main road, lots of offices/bit of industry nearby, nearby schools) with parking and just basically doing a little of everything (its rammed with shelves…quite claustrophobic in there!) plus doing all the services (lottery, collectplus, utility top ups etc). Great store and chaps in there are always friendly

guy i know did it massively long hours and very little reward for it

As others not the key factir is going to be

1) Long hours
2) money to be made if you can cope with 1 and minimise costs of it.

Used to work with a guy who had few shops, ran by his wife and daughters. He made good money off them, especially the one near to a secondary school. Bought himself a big fryer and got a hot food license. Kids love chips.

The local village shops are all Nisa, which IIRC is a type of cooperative. That must make purchasing and dealing with larger suppliers easier I guess. Still looks hard work though.